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Genuine head gaskets are definitely the way to. I always use them, and along with a set of arp's never had any issue holding in over 20 psi. Crow do k series double valve springs.... and by using the search function you could probably even find a part number!

Nice progress Jon

You still looking for a 5k head gasket? I can ask my local parts place if he's got one. EDIT: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CYLINDER-HEAD-GASKET-TOYOTA-LITEACE-KM36-1-5L-5KC-5K-C-1-86-3-92-/252846626671?hash=item3aded5576f:g:iNYAAOSwuLZY5bpy what about this one??

Don't forget rim offset and tyres also play a part here, so if you have non-stock wheels and wider tyres it will be heavier. Wheel alignment too- if someone has wound up the castor the steering will be heavy, extra camber not so much. Put a jack under the outside of each lower control arm and lift the tyres just off the ground and see what the steering feels like. That will tell you about the friction in the rack, which should be zero unless it has been badly adjusted.

Yes your steering arms are also your steering knuckles. Your system is rack and pinion. That means you have a steering rack (essentially a toothed steel rod in a tube), which is bolted to the cross member and connected by the column to the steering wheel. The steering rack has a pair of ball jointed rack ends screwed into it hidden under the rubber boots that allows, in conjunction with the tie rod ends that are ball jointed and connect to the steering arm, enough articulation to make the necessary changes in angle at the wheel. The angle change at the wheel as discussed above is controlled by steering arm length. To fit ae86 steering arms to a ke70, you need to first buy and install ae86 struts. The ae86 stuff does not bolt into ke70 unless you use the whole ae86 strut hubs and brakes, with ke70 strut top. That would also allow a wider choice of shocks as they suit the more available 51mm struts instead of the 44mm ones in the ke70 for which you cant get many performance upgrades.

Its all about the length of the arm. Just draw a circle. Now draw a concentric circle thats 2/3 as big, inside the first one. The larger circle has a larger circumference. If the same distance around each arc is applied, it will give you more degrees of rotation of the smaller circle. That's how shorter steering arms give you more lock. Because you are doing more rotational work with the same horizontal movement of the steering rack, you end up with a stiffer feel at the wheel. Obviously it makes the steering faster. Or at least ti will feel a little quicker around the middle and a lot quicker at the edges. What someone has done to your car, by manually cutting and welding the steering arms is not road legal anywhere. Steering is very serious. Just put stock ke70 steering arms back in, and then you will reduce the effort, but be warned also the lock. Ke70 has plenty of lock for U turns stock anyhow. Its got a shorter steering arms than a stock ae86 but not as short as ae86 power steering arms. A lot of cars had power steering versions, so you can get shorter arms usually from a power steering car, and couple with a manual rack. Its a frequently done factory swap mod with performance benefits of lock and speed of turning, as long as you can tweak your driving style. Just dont sit there grinding off your tyres like a pleb without a slight amount of forwards or backwards movement to ease the turn when parking.

The point of this is to shorten the steering arms to enable more steering lock. Another thing that will make your car unroadworthy (cutting and welding a steering component). You would want to hope there is full penetration on the weld! I had shorter steering arms in my AE86 (from a pwr steer AE86) for about 5 mins before I took them back out and sold them. The steering for a daily car was way to heavy. If you are using them in a race or drift car where most of the driving is at speed, I'm sure they are great. For a daily that has to spend much time pottering about, parking etc, they would be horrible.